Camp Games, Four Rotations
by IndigoPenguin
Summary: Of all forms of fun, telling stories is the oldest. Chasing after your love is second to that. [FE: SS]
1. Part I, Chapter One: Ocean's Fire

_So, our party has set up camp for the umpteenth time. What to do, what to do...Sadly, Magvel is running a little low on s'mores and beanie-weanies, so our heros turn to the age old entertainment of horror stories. _

_Split into four parts of three chapters apiece (That means twelve chapters total for the arithmetic-impaired), the following fan fiction is an experiment in trauma, comfort, and relationships. _

_The parts are, in order: I-JoshuaNatasha, II-GerikTethys, III-SethEirika and IV-ColmNeimi. _

_For the only time in the entire tale, I do not own Fire Emblem. _

_Enjoy, darlings!_

**Part I, Chapter One: Ocean's Fire. **

How she was coaxed out of the tent was an interesting little story. Come Hell or high water, the devoted cleric absolutely would not leave her patients (even though they were only Ross with a sprained wrist and Franz who had the beginnings of a cold) to join in the fun. So, while L'Arachel promised to Latona and the Divine Light itself that she, the all-magnificent jewel of Rausten, would care for the boys, Seth and Joshua managed to pin her between them and guide the blonde woman to the fire where the assembled party awaited. And oh, how Natasha fretted over the wounded and glanced to the tent every five minutes.

Joshua knew how to calm her down, however. As the food-a beefy stew-was passed around, he quietly followed the healer while she insisted on pouring everybody's food; helping her hold bowls and all the while chatting with her about one incident or another. Like Natasha normally did when she was around the red-haired swordsman, she smiled a little wider and relaxed somewhat. She even only protested once when he offered her his coat. Their bowls-the last two to be filled-still remained, and discreetly the woman slipped more turnips into his dish before dropping stew into her own. Joshua sighed at this, wondering if she ever missed a chance to care for anybody. He _had _only told her turnips were his favorite vegetable last week. She took little notice of the shake of his head, and slowly chewed a bit of potato as Garcia stood.

"Ahem. Well, it's another evening by the fire, and I think we need some entertainment." Varied parties voiced their agreement, and after they stopped the axeman continued. "So...Who's up for ghost stories?" The roar of approval was intense, and Joshua noticed in the middle of his wine-cup salute that even the gentle Natasha raised her hand in agreement. Order was decided quickly, with the tales beginning with Eirika and moving to her left, with no pressure on anybody to tell a story if they didn't want to.

The princess told the classic tale of the Frelian phantom that every villager hears by the time they're weaned, not wanting to frighten anybody just yet. Her general was next, but Seth passed and let Lute go. In the mage's usual fashion, a perfect hero with the name of Nute destroyed an entire hoard of entombed, and halfway through this Forde mentioned the _odd_ similarities between her and the hero, causing a scuffle. After Seth had the two by their collars he nodded to Natasha.

Joshua was sure that the woman would pass. He swallowed the wine in his throat and got ready to stand, but the cleric smoothed out his coat and rose, taking a few steps closer to the fire. "This is a story that I was told awhile ago...please stop me if you become scared." The Jehannan raised an eyebrow and picked his goblet back up. Natasha inhaled and began.

"As you know, Grado has a very large coastline. I grew up...well, for eleven years anyway, beside the sea in a moderately sized village. The ocean is a beautiful, life-giving thing, I assure you, but it can also be very, very deadly." She slid the dark coat off and held it with one hand briefly before waving it over the flames, causing a tidal wave of smoke to rush towards the back of the camp. Setting the garment onto the ground, she continued. "Every human being in contact with the waters fears the sea-god's wrath."

Thus, for all of her knowledge of what salve went of which bruise, the cleric turned out to be a superb story teller. With a casual air in every sentence, she spoke of the fearsome ruler of the ocean tides and pulled the army into her village; forcing them to watch the blue waters with concern as the local priests forgot to make an offering to calm the god. Natasha's hands that were so at home bandaging cuts were expressive as well as her eyes, and with a shift of her body she lowered her gaze to the gravel. "And then, He came. In all of His ferocity, He found the local priest and drug him back to His watery lair. The priest cried out to his people, but under the sea-god's spell they only turned their backs to him as he disappeared into the foamy waves. Soon the god sent the priest down into the deep, cold waters...and, struggling for breath, the man let his head loll back only to see sharks nearby."

"The beasts circled once before diving in for the kill, wrenching off limbs and severing arteries, turning the water a smoky red as the priest screamed and prayed for forgiveness...but he had angered a power that was greater than himself. And so, the people in my village still serve Him, the sea-ruler, to this day, for fear of what will happen to them." Amidst the applause and whistles, Joshua noticed the bits of moisture fringing her eyelashes, and he knew.

That story wasn't about some priest and a god.

It was about the Demon King and her mentor.

Turning his face to meet hers, the beautiful cleric stared over his shoulder as the orange flames lit her hood and hair with a heavenly glow. She exhaled softly and walked away from the fire, murmuring that she had to get back to her patients, and he too rose and followed fifteen feet or so behind. "Teacher, why did-" Saleh sighed and told Ewan to stop poking into personal affairs before smiling apologetically to the Renais princess and standing. Oh, they would fear the rock beast of his home in the mountains.

While the outskirts of the camp were a dense forest, Joshua had enough training and enough of a bead on the woman's white clothes to safely follow her about fifty horse strides into the brush, pausing when she slumped against a towering ash tree. He slid closer as he heard the _thump_ of her sitting on the ground, and a few seconds after she heaved a great sigh the gambling man spoke. "I didn't know you had patients in the forest," Joshua smirked, moving beside her and sitting also.

"...Joshua..." Garnet eyes shifted to meet downcast blue ones. "I thought you'd understand it...I knew I shouldn't have gone." Natasha put her forehead on her hand and grimaced.

The myrmidon shifted his feet. "Everything is a game of chance. Your choice was to tell that story, and mine was to follow you instead of scaring the piss out of the whole army. So, I'd eat my hat if you can't guess why I chose what I did." She smiled softly and clutched at the fabric of her hood.

"Because you think I need a friendly ear. Thank you, but-" Joshua spun to face her, taking her pale hand into his calloused pair and pushing his hat back up with a toss of his head. Natasha blinked, stunned, and swallowed nervously.

"Natasha. Please, tell me what's going on with you." He squeezed her cool hand between his palms and continues to bore into her sapphire irises with his deep red gaze. "You can't help everybody without helping yourself, too. Let me help _you_."

For her, it was the last piece of the puzzle, and with a whimper Natasha barreled herself into the man's strong arms and cried for the first time in years. She cried for her mentor, her country, and the pained man in front of her. Natasha didn't think to shed even the smallest tear for herself, she had never been one to do such, but that was alright.

Joshua shed a few for her.

**End Part I, Chapter One. **

_So, next up is Part I, Chapter Two. Review if you'd like, and expect an update sometime this week. _


	2. Part I, Chapter Two: His Usual Chore

**Part I, Chapter Two: His Usual Chore**

There was something on his stomach. The swordsman resisted the urge to stab the intruder and cracked an eye open, only to see another pair of scarlet ones staring back. "Hey! Get up, Mister Joshua!" Mister...? Since when was he a mister? Joshua blinked and shielded his eyes from the sun with his left hand, peering at Ewan. The boy was too energetic at any time of day, he decided.

"I'm getting, kid. If you'd get off of me, however, I'd get a whole lot faster." The mage-in-training scrambled onto the dirt and watched as Joshua pulled on his coat and belt, put his leather boots on, strapped his sword to his side, and ran a hand through his tangled hair.

Ewan cocked his head to the side. "Mister Joshua, why don't you have a brush? Why is your sword at an angle? Why did you leave camp last night? Why-"

"Ewan. I'm not a library." Joshua said dryly, popping his back. He didn't want to offend the kid however, so he began to answer the questions. "My comb was left behind a few camps ago, the sword is at an angle because if it wasn't I'd cut my stomach open when I drew it, and I left camp because it's fun to make you ask questions. Anything else?" The boy, satisfied with the answers he was given, nodded.

"Uh-huh. General Seth said we're staying here for another day and that you don't have guard duty. And Miss Natasha needs you in the healer's tent." Grinning, the red-haired child dug around in his pouch and pulled out a piece of cloth, which he unrolled to reveal an apple. "And I got you breakfast." Joshua smiled at the innocent antics.

"Thanks," He murmured as he took the deep red fruit into his hand. "You're a good kid, Ewan." As the boy beamed, Joshua dug around his own pouch until his fingers brushed the wooden whistle he won a while back. Pulling the toy out, he pressed it into Ewan's hand with a smile. "Here. Have fun with this."

Ewan closed his fingers around the whistle. "Thank you, Mister Joshua! I betcha' Master Saleh can make this shoot bubbles!" He ran out of the tent then, leaving a head-shaking myrmidon in his wake. That boy was too much. Taking a bite of the sweet fruit, Joshua pushed his tent flap open and walked into the busy camp. With another bite of his breakfast, the man watched as Forde and Kyle bickered before turning to the right and moving over towards the white healer's tent. Pausing at the tent flap, Joshua listened to the clink of glass and the slight rustle of Natasha's movement before raising a hand and tapping at the tent pole.

"Come in," The cleric answered with a smile, and he entered the spacious tent. She hadn't bothered to turn to face him from her perch on a stool, and with a armful of vials she hopped to the floor. "Good morning, Joshua." Natasha greeted him as she set the bottles down in a row. "I didn't want to wake you, but Ewan insisted that it was past nine already...Energetic little boy, isn't he?"

Joshua smirked and swallowed his mouthful of apple. "Has he ever waken you up, Natasha?" The woman shook her head. "Be glad." He tossed the fruit up into the air and caught it, setting it down on one of many crates. "He said you needed me."

"Ah. Yes," She said, climbing back onto her stool. "Since we have free time today, I was wondering if you could help me organize my medicines." Gathering ten more bottles into her hands, she stepped down and set them beside the fifty or so on the table. Joshua pushed red hair back behind his shoulder and ran his eyes over the vast number of containers.

"How many do you have...? A hundred?"

Natasha shook her head. "Oh, heavens no...closer to two hundred...one ninety-four was the last count, I believe." Scarlet eyes widened, and the cleric frowned slightly. "Will there be a problem?"

"No...Just why do you need so many?" He took the glass bottles she handed him and set them beside the others, and while they formed a sort of conveyor-belt system to get all of the medicines down from their shelves, Natasha calmly explained how the basic medicines alone were twenty. Then she elaborated, telling him about the brews she used to ward off tetanus and poison, and the ancient ones she scrounged up to battle the gaping, rotting wounds their otherworldly foes left. Combining that with L'Arachel and Tethys's allergies to a base root-which meant specialized potions for them-Joshua thought, the amount of bottles he had set on the wooden tabletop were more than understandable. Natasha left her perch and pointed him to a few baskets, which he brought over without complaint, and together they sorted through piles of herbs.

A bit of chatter later, Joshua decided to bring it up again. "So, you feeling any better?" The blonde cleric looked up then, and instead of the immense sorrow her cerulean eyes had shown last night, they softened and she let out a smile. She ran long, slender fingers through her rippling hair before replying.

"Yes...Thank you." Natasha smiled at him and stuck a new label-_Streptohelia Kitanus, Summer Brush_-onto the bottle of a deep green plant. Setting the Summer Brush down into the basket with the other poison-stopping mixtures, she turned her full attention to Joshua. "It's strange, really. It's been so long since I've cried...and I'm terribly sorry to have burdened you so much. With my sobbing and fainting on you, and you having to get L'Arachel to wake me, and I left your coat by the fire and it got to smelling like smoke, oh Joshua, I-"

He frowned and tapped his index finger onto her lips lightly. "Ah-ah-ah. I said that I wanted to help you last night, 'Tash. What makes you think it'll be any different today, or tomorrow, or three years from now?" Her confused expression wasn't enough of an answer for him. "And you know what? I don't care that my coat smells or that I had to carry you back to camp or that my shirt has never been so wet in my life. I care that you're still hurting. Talk to me."

Natasha lowered her gaze and stood, moving over to a cot and motioning for him to join her. After the Jehannan had settled onto the thing, she sighed and turned her head to look out the open tent flap. "It was late at night...eleven?twelve?...when the troops came in. There were only four of them, but seeing as none of them were wounded it was odd to see them in the Imperial Temple. My mentor, Liam, told me to go fetch drinks as he spoke to the men, and I came back early enough to hear the last part of what they said."

"'High Priest Liam, you are charged with treason against his Imperial Majesty. You do not deny this?'

'No. You deny the truth! Can you not see-'

'Silence! You are to be executed...now.' They...they ran him through then, with a lance. Then they left, leaving him bleeding on the floor, and I ran over to him. Master Liam told me not to waste the energy healing him and to go and inform somebody about the Demon King's return. He instructed me with such desperation I could only nod and run out the door..."

"And, well Joshua, you were in Searafew. What you said to me was the first bit of human contact, the first polite words anybody said to me in three weeks." Natasha sighed and locked her gaze onto his, placing her pale hand onto his shoulder.

He smirked. "Even though I was trying to pick you up?" Chuckling at her blush, Joshua patted her hand and rose, carefully pulling her to her feet. "Just kidding. I did think you were beautiful, though. Still do." The man looped his arm around hers and led her out of the tent. "C'mon, we've been sorting for three hours. Let's take a break."

As usual, she protested. "But, Joshua...! Surely you're tired? You don't need to be dragging me about trying to cheer me up, you need to be resting. Please, why don't we just..." She faltered, watching him heave a small sigh.

"Natasha." He emphasized every syllable of her name with such feeling it sent a wave of euphoria through her nerves. "I said I was going to help you. Now come with me, m'lady, you and I are going to take a stroll around the forest and have a chat. A nice, long chat, and we'll be back in time for dinner, hmm?"

The woman smiled and let out a faint laugh. "Of course. You know, Joshua, I do think that you enjoy making me smile." Joshua grinned and led her past the last row of tents, stepping lightly over a fallen tree branch.

"'Tash, you smile often enough. I'm just trying to make you happy." Natasha smiled brilliantly at this and pulled her torrent of gold hair over her shoulder.

"Oh? And since when do you have the right to call me 'Tash?"

"Since I thought we were close enough to do so. You can call me Joshie. Or maybe Wah. Or maybe Josh. Or Jo." Like the sun on a spring day, beams of laughter poured out of his beautiful companion, and he looked to her. "Oh? You don't like Jo?"

"No, it's...I think..." She let out a few more giggles and composed herself. "I apologize. I think I like Joshua better. I don't mind you calling me 'Tash, though." Joshua nodded.

"Good. Now that we're at an agreement on what to call each other, let's get back to the serious stuff. Are you sure you're okay with Joshua therapy?" Natasha let out a noise of approval. "Even better! Well, where shall we begin...? Ah. What's your most embarrassing moment?"

"Joshua, are you trying to heal me through laughter or humiliation?"

"Neither, 'Tash! I told you it's Joshua therapy. It has exercises that will make you open up to me so that I can get to know you, feel with you, and visa versa." The cleric smiled again and stopped, looking up into his garnet eyes.

Joshua stopped walking, too. He waited for her to speak. "Joshua...why? You're more cynical than you are a listener...why do you treat me so well?" The swordsman paused.

"I...you're more to me than the rest of them are." He could feel his pulse quicken, and desperately wished that he had listened to his mother's courting advice more. All of it that he could recall now were the symptoms of falling head over heels, and according to that he was already dead. "Uh, I mean that you're so nice to me, why shouldn't I be nice to you? After all, Fate's tricky, y'know?" Cursing at himself, he turned away from Natasha, who gently closed her fingers around his wrist.

"Joshua, calm down. I won't judge your speech-giving powers. Just tell me what's wrong." He turned to look at her again, and saw such _pain _for him in her eyes. All thoughts of Liam were forgotten, any concern for the wounded and battered and down-and-out were pushed aside just for him. Only because he was flustered and he was in pain. How could she be so forgiving and kind towards him, a runaway killer? A man who had tried to take her _life_? And Natasha knew that he had every intention of killing her, too, but she forgave him, helped him, laughed with him...She helped him sharpen his blade and sewed up a tear in his old hat, cared for him the three days he was out due to a nasty arrow wound, and when he awoke from that she was there beside him-tired as hell, but she smiled and told him she was glad he was awake. All he did was help stock some bottles, move patients, and try to keep the angel among mortals happy. Now she was still worried, still concerned, and she still felt bad about unloading her problems onto him.

"Damnit, Natasha! Why...why do you have to do this? Treat me so well and everything, even give me extra turnips...and you never even think you need compensation for this? How could I not care for you so much?"

"My light, my beautiful pained angel...how could I not love you so?"

**End Part I, Chapter Two. **

_The final chapter in the JxN saga is up next! A few explanations before I leave you..._

_Streptohelia Kitanus, Summer Brush. This, to my knowledge, does not exist, and is an entirely made-up plant whose name I derived from fancy-sounding words out of my science textbook. The common name (Summer Brush) was added as an afterthought; after all, the practical Natasha wouldn't just rely on scientific names alone. _

_And as for Master Liam? I played the 'Mash the hand on the keyboard and make words out of letters' game with that. And it sounds priest-y. _

_A BIG THANK YOU TO MY REVIEWERS! Your comments meant the world to me. _


	3. Part I, Chapter Three: Collide

**Part I, Chapter Three: Collide **

Everybody had told her about a point when time froze. She thought it to be ludicrous, after all, how can the only continuous force in the world _stop_? It would throw off so many things: the karmatic balance, the flow of the Divine's energies, it may even change the seasons! Thus, whenever she was treating a love-struck young man who had gotten his eye blackened in a fight to protect his beloved or an old woman on her deathbed who went on about her dead husband; Natasha would smile and nod her head as they told her about how time had froze when they and their other half met. Even if she disagreed with their choice of phrasing, their was no need to interject over something as trivial as that. It was just a saying, something Magvel would work out of its system in another fifty years or so.

And yet...Here she stood, the trees with their colors of gold and brown swirling into a slow spiral around her, with her breath caught in her throat. Her heart, which was going like a frightened child's, had momentarily paused in her bosom, and her thoughts all paused. The only clear thing the cleric could see was him. And she thought, Ah..._this_ is what they meant, as she hung suspended in a moment. That fleeting frozen second was lost soon, and with her chest pounding and mind whirling, Natasha looked at Joshua and formed a basic sentence after she managed to unglue her throat. "What?"

Not the most eloquent reply in the world, but enough to continue the conversation. Joshua took her delicate hand into his own, cradling it like it was a butterfly, and with his face still serious he spoke. "Natasha," There was her name again, and the same shivers jolted through her body, "I love you. Deeply, madly, dearly, I love you. I don't care that your country called you a traitor, you can come with me to Jehanna after this war, but I would lay down my life so that you didn't have to hurt anymore. You...you may not feel the same, but I am yours."

This was Joshua? The laid-back, grinning Cheshire cat of their army who juggled with her potions for lack of something to do with his hands? No, she reminded herself, Joshua was more than that, _so _much more than that, but even still...The man was standing in front of her was speaking so earnestly and from his soul that she wasn't sure how to respond to that. Sure, the question buzzed at the back of Natasha's mind whenever she thought of him, but to put it into words she would have to sort it out in her head first.

It was instant. Memories came flooding into her conscious so quickly they almost merged.

"_Ow!" He hissed. Frowning apologetically, she set her needle down._

"_I'm sorry, Joshua, but you have hundreds of splinters in your hands from catching that shelf. Why'd you catch it?"_

_He grinned. "Why would I let it crash to the floor after I ground so many plants?" She shook her head. _

_The bone walker was fast. Too fast to dodge, she knew. The best thing she could do would be to duck and hope that the blade only caught her arm._

_Red flashed through her vision, and the animated body crumbled before her feet. "You really need to look out for yourself." Joshua chided, wiping the black sludge off of his blade with boot. _

_Earthernware slid across wood, and blue eyes glanced up from their vigil across the six patients in the tent. "Eat, Natasha. I'm sure they won't mind if you do." _

"_Joshua..." He frowned, and pointed to the bowl. _

"_No, eat." She sighed and took the fork he was offering her, reluctantly taking a bite of the salad. _

_The drunken man in front of her apparently didn't understand 'no, thank you'. "C'mon, Sister, I can show you a better time than whoever you've got in the temple." Natasha had to try not to retch. _

"_I think the lady said no, you sickening bastard. Get out." Joshua stepped in front of her firmly, boring into the drunk with a fiery red glare. The click of his blade leaving the sheath was enough to scare the burly man off, and Joshua muttered under his breath after he ran out the doors of the tavern. Turning to the cleric, he frowned. "What are you doing here?"_

_She smiled. "Thank you, Joshua. I came here to-" Natasha turned to the tavern owner and took the offered package. "Ah, thank you Karl." She looked back to the myrmidon. "I came here to get this," She held the brown bag up slightly, "Herbs." _

"_...Come get me next time. Let's go." _

"_Let me help you."_

She knew. She had always known.

"Oh, Joshua...I'm not...You give me too much credit, and yourself too little. I'm no angel, and I'm not worth anybody's life. But I have to admit that..."

"...I feel the same way."

And his face changed. The mask of seriousness faded away as color flew into his cheeks, the very corners of his mouth turned up, and his ruby eyes flickered with a new light. Like watching a sunrise, she mused, as he still held her hand and asked a single question. "Really?"

Natasha smiled openly at this and shook off the last bindings her job had on her mind. "Of course." Then, with a small squeak, she was lifted half a foot off the ground as Joshua grabbed her around the waist and turned in a circle. He still held her suspended from the grass as he burrowed his tanned face into her hood and murmured 'I love you' repeatedly. Her chest felt like it would burst and the tingles had spread through her entire body, and still smiling broadly she lifted her head to look into his eyes. "Joshua...could you put me..."

"Nope. You're staying right here."

"Oh...?" She pulled a copper penny from her belt pouch and held it up. "Heads I get put down, tails I don't?"

"Damn you woman!" Joshua chuckled, nodding. "Sure." The coin left her hand, flipped once...twice...thrice...and a final time before sailing into her waiting palm. Flipping it over, she held her hand out for the man to see. And groaning, he set her lightly on the ground again. Smiling contentedly, Natasha put her coin back and laced her slender fingers with his, setting off on their walk.

The rustle of leaves was the only sound for a few paces before she spoke. "...This feels much better than having everything bottled up."

He raised the eyebrow that wasn't blocked by his tattered hat. "The whole loving thing, or the getting the Liam-thing off your chest?"

"Mmm...both, I think. The first one more so," She smiled, sighing. "Truly, it goes against the clerical principals. Your love is supposed to be focused on the entire populous, not a single person."

Joshua snorted, a I-can't-believe-you-said-that snort. "Oh, bah. You love the rest of them enough as it is."

"Maybe so. And, after all, I left the wounded-Master Liam-to die without trying, and I _am_ a traitor to Grado...Why not abandon the cleric order altogether, then? I can still heal without being a holy woman." The red-head nodded sharply, tracing a design on her wrist with his thumb.

"Now you're thinking. Spread the love and not the Light!...What's that look for? Jehannan's aren't particularly religious, as you can see."

"...That was blasphemy."

Joshua rolled his eyes. "Yes, it was. But if a divinity doesn't know how to take a joke, then why did he invent people?" The blonde looked up at him, then with a sudden intake of breath began to laugh, a pale rosy color rising to her cheeks.

"You have a point," She chuckled, shaking her head, "You have a point. We are funny creatures, aren't we?"

The man paused with a smirk, tilting his head to the side. "Mmph? I was talking about people, 'Tash, not angels."

"Oh, will you stop it? I'm no angel."

"You are to me."

"...Well, I can't control your thoughts, now can I?"

"Master Saleh could!"

The pair stopped and turned slowly around, staring at Ewan and his wooden whistle (which, Joshua noted, was floating behind the boy like a puppy). The child grinned and waved his index finger at them clicking his tongue. Natasha smiled at the impish boy. "Ah, hello Ewan. I'm sure Saleh could control our thoughts. Now, how long have you been following us?"

"Mmm...Three minutes?"

"Three minutes..."

"Yup!"The spirited figure chirped, trotting ahead of them. "And won't the princess flip when I tell her you're off canoodling!" Laughing, the pupil ran off.

"You, oh you fool!" Joshua snarled, beginning to seethe. "_Ewan_! Get _back _here!" The cleric only sighed and patted his hand with a smile.

"Oh, come now Joshua. He doesn't know what canoodle means. And the rest of the camp can wonder, now can't they?" Looking wearily at the tents that just entered his line of vision, the Jehannan shook his head.

"I suppose he can't do too much harm..."

"_Hey!_ Guess what! Joshua and Miss Natasha are canoodling!"

"...Isn't that, um, sex?"

"ROSS!"

"Sorry, Dad..."

"Nuh-uh, no way Natasha'd be kissing that rogue."

"Mm...you never know, Tana."

Scarlet eyes locking with blue, the two lovers stared at each other for a long, frozen moment. Natasha cleared her throat. "Well...it appears the rest of the camp doesn't know the word, either." Growling, Joshua set off at a brisk trot towards the army campsite.

"C'mon, we need to get back before things get too bad!" Nodding, the lady followed suit. Thus, the desert-dwelling gambling man and his partner, the seaside cleric, leaped back into the fray of fighters they called an army.

And who knew what the army would speak of at dinner that night.

**End Part I, Chapter Three. **

_Here, I give you a summary of Part II. Because I can. _

He takes life with a grain of salt, and she takes it with every superstition in the book. Interested with the lore involved in the dancer's tale, he asks her to teach him more...but apparently, some things cannot be taught.

_This one may be a bit late-I have a major project to do for school. It'll be up before or on Cinco De Mayo, hopefully. (And for my readers not in Texas, Cinco De Mayo is he fifth of May, the holiday that celebrates Mexico's independence from Spain.) ((And for my curious readers out there, I am not Hispanic. Just Texan)). _


End file.
